Sunday, November 29, 2009

I had little prepared so I threw together a little skirmish using everyone's regular characters... The Samurai they had helped out in the Previous Episode had invited our heroes to stay with him at his village. While there a message arrived from his Daimyo that a lost temple that had reputedly held some ancient relic had been discovered and he was to go with the man that had discovered the temple and recover the relic.

Unfortunately, When they got there they found a band of ninjas searching the temple for the very same relic... there was a bit of a stand-off...

But soon the two groups of foes had to join forces to battle a greater enemy - a giant Oni and a horde of ZOMBES!!!!

The ninjas all bit it in the battle... I had given control of them to the players and probably shouldn't have - I could then have kept them in the background shooting and chucking shurikens (all in vain) at the zombies while letting the characters get eaten a bit and then fight them for the relic... ah, well.. we started a bit late and I was tired...

Still not settled on a setting for this campaign - Kara-tur, Rokugan or somewhere else... Reading the L5R/Rokugan fluff is kind of fun... but I feel a little intimidated by the sheer volume of canon... A few books arrived this week that I picked up off ebay cheap. A few more will hopefully arrive in the next week or two, including some adventures. I guess we'll see once I have a chance to wade through a few of them!

I'm kind of torn - I have some pretty lofty ideas and long range plans for charcters being involved at high levels in politics and/or commanding armies (using Hordes of the SAVAGE Things). Not sure how that will jive with the Rokugan setting. It might just be easier to invent my own so I can use more of the armies I own (or ones I'm planning on building - mongols, Samurai Dwarves, etc...

Sunday, November 22, 2009

I have to admit I kind of launched into this campaign with more enthusiasm than preparation. I thought I’d whip up some maps of the empire and local regions around where the players were starting… figure out some names for the major clans and their relationships… and on we’d go… So far I’ve been just flying by the seat of my pants.

Well it’s been two months since we started and I have done no such things. I guess I still could. I dug out my old AD&D oriental adventures and two of the adventure modules I had for it – and then picked up two more off of ebay. I originally thought I’d sort of use it as a resource and fit the adventures into the world I had devised. Then I got to thinking maybe I should just say screw it and read ALL of their background and set the campaign in Kara-Tur (the original setting of the AD&D Oriental Adventures…).

I had also started picking up some more Legends of the Five Rings Clan War minis off of ebay… and then picked up a couple of the L5R RPG reference books – for further “inspiration”… but now I’m wondering if I should maybe just set the campaign in Rokugan…?

There are bonuses and pitfalls to either making my own or using someone else’s setting. If I use my own I can just make stuff up as I like – rough out the general locations of things and some of the big picture items and add detail as required… but that takes some work…

Using someone else’s takes less envisioning and thinking up of stuff. The players could read some of it on their own and not require that I spell out for them every little detail of the culture during the game. The Legends of the Five Rings Rokugan setting seems to have a fully detailed background and stuff . But the downsides are a) there’s a lot of books one could potentially have to BUY, b) I’d have to get around to READING them all, and c) players that can read faster, or have more time, could potentially end up knowing more about the setting that I do….

I’ll try and figure out what I’m doing by next week. As for this week…

SITUATION

After staying at the Temple of Wah for a few days to recover their strength our heroes were set off again on their wanderings againg. Daichi decided to stay at the temple a few more days so the others decided to go wandering on there own to explore the region.

They hadn’t gone far when a samurai came riding up the road and told them the next village had been attacked by a band of goblins that came down out of the mountains. He knew which way they went but couldn’t take them all himself. As our heroes looked like capable sorts he demanded they follow him and join the pursuit.

SCENARIO

The Samurai and some followers, along with the characters, have followed a raiding party of goblins to a remote mountain pass. When the goblins stopped there for a breather their pursuers decided to make their move…

Kohaku looses an arrow at the Oni, but it glances off his thick hide. Akria, Isamu, and Hayato approach through the denser foliage.

The Ashigaru archers take down a number of the goblin archers.

The Oni and Goblin Warriors charge!

The Oni thumped on Kohaku pretty good. Kohaku burned all his bennies just surviving the intial charge!

Akira leaps out of the brush and cuts down one of the Goblins. Isamu, Kohaku, and Hayato are locked in combat with their respective assailants.

With a wild swing another goblin wounds Akira and throws her off balance.

A second wilds swing tkes her down before she can recover from the first blow!

The Oni Knocks down Kohaku with a fearsome blow. Hayato bashed in the head of the goblin attacking him and Isamu found himself fighting TWO! Though he was beating them back – knocking one off balance before receiving the renewed attack of the other.

Finally Isamu took down one, and then finished off the other.

The Oni charged – intimidating Isamu with a fearsome battle cry! (successfully intimidated but the Oni’s next attack roll was a 1… bennied that and hit, caused two wounds, but both were soaked…)

Having finished off all but one of the Goblin archers – who was set to flight – the Ashigaru joinin the battle against the Oni. While a terror in single combat the Oni was no match for FIVE!

Both Isamu and Hayato did a terrific job at treating Kohaku and Akiras wounds (both got raises – despite the -4 due to their grievous wounds!) and so both were able to walk back to the nearby village where they were able to rest some time and recover.

For his bravery and exceptional ability Kohaku awarded Isamu with a very fine bow and declared himself indebted to them all.

This past Saturday everyone was in reasonably good health and available so we got back to the action!

To make a long story startlingly short…

Once everyone regained consciousness (both Akira and Isamu had been greiviously wounded in the last episode), the spent the rest of the afternoon stumbling along through the jungle valley as best they could to try and as much distance between themselves and any goblins that might still be lurking about as possible. By late afternoon the two ronin had collapsed again into unconciousness that they could not be wakened from until morning.

When morning did arrive, the woke to find a withered old man standing over them inquiring as to what they were doing there. Without waiting for much of a sensible explanation, or indeed for all to wake up, he instructed them to follow him and took of with uncanny speed through the jungle for some one evidently so advanced in years.

After a very close encounter with a goblin war party he continued to lead them to his hermitage – a cave in the side of a mountain.

There he brewed up a nasty smelling concoction that required spirit rolls to consume, but once all were able, they fell into a deep sleep and when they finally awoke felt much refreshed and well on their way to recovering from their wounds.

The old hermit then bid them on their way and our heroes obliged. They made their way across the jungle valley without incident. The next day they climbed through the pass and down though the mountains on the other side.

When they finally came to cultivated area they stayed a night at a farm. The following day they made their way to the Temple of Wah and dropped off the idol – after finding some small amount of information about it.

There everyone decided to stay for a few more days to rest up before carrying on with their wanderings.